Chapter 1 - The Voice Behind the Door
The man who had killed my daughter was standing on the other side of the nursery door.
“Mason.”
His name escaped my lips before I could stop it.
Lorenzo turned toward me so sharply that the barrel of his pistol crossed my face.
“You know him?”
Leo suddenly released my chest.
His tiny mouth opened, but no sound came out.
His body went frighteningly still in my arms.
“Leo?”
I rubbed his back with one trembling hand.
“Come on, sweetheart.”
“Keep talking to him,” Lorenzo ordered.
The coldness had vanished from his voice.
He sounded terrified.
A quiet laugh came through the locked door.
“You always were good with other people’s children, Clara.”
My stomach twisted.
Only three people had ever called me Clara inside this city.
My mother.
The hospital nurse who had placed Lily’s silent body in my arms.
And Mason Reed.
My former boyfriend.
The man who had shoved me down the stairs.
Lorenzo raised his gun toward the lock.
“Move away from the door.”
I carried Leo behind the marble changing table.
The sleeping nurse suddenly stirred in her chair.
Her eyelids opened.
She looked at me.
Then she looked at Lorenzo.
Her expression did not show confusion.
It showed disappointment.
“You were not supposed to come in here,” she whispered.
Her hand moved beneath the blanket covering her lap.
I saw the flash of a silver needle.
“Lorenzo!”
The nurse lunged toward Leo.
I turned my body and shielded him against my chest.
Lorenzo fired once.
The bullet struck the wooden arm of the chair.
The syringe flew from the nurse’s hand and skidded beneath the crib.
She screamed and dropped to the floor.
Lorenzo crossed the room in two steps.
He grabbed the nurse by the collar and forced her against the wall.
“What was in that syringe?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were trying to put it into my son.”
“I was trying to help him.”
“With what?”
She pressed her lips together.
Lorenzo pushed the gun beneath her chin.
“I will ask once more.”
“What was in the syringe?”
The nurse looked past him.
She stared directly at me.
“You have no idea what you just interrupted.”
A faint hissing sound came from the hallway.
Smoke began sliding beneath the nursery door.
Lorenzo released the nurse.
He fired twice into the lock.
The damaged wood cracked, but the door did not open.
Something heavy had been pushed against it from the outside.
“Mason!” I shouted.
The laughter had stopped.
Only footsteps answered me.
They moved slowly away from the nursery.
Lorenzo pulled out his phone.
There was no signal.
The nursery monitor flickered.
Leo’s heart rate began falling.
The nurse smiled.
Lorenzo saw it.
“What did you give him?”
She said nothing.
I placed two fingers beneath Leo’s nose.
His breath was barely there.
“Mr. Rossi, we need a doctor now.”
Lorenzo slammed his shoulder against the door.
It did not move.
The smoke grew thicker.
The nurse remained on the floor, watching us calmly.
“Why are you smiling?” I demanded.
She tilted her head.
“Because the baby was never supposed to survive tonight.”
The nursery lights went dark.
May you like
Leo stopped breathing.
And somewhere inside the blackness, the nurse began to laugh.
